Page 85 of The Human’s Heart

I wrinkled my nose, muttered, “Thank you,” and opened the back door, glad he was taking it out so I didn’t have to.

Basil stood there, looking grumpy like usual, and I waved him inside. He walked in, saying, “I have some news regarding Phia’s case.”

My eyebrows shot up because I hadn’t expected to be kept up to date on her case since we didn’t work for the BCA, but I wasn’t about to complain either.

Zay said, “Let me run this outside real quick.” He was out the door before his uncle could respond.

“Do you want some coffee?” I asked, walking over to the machine because I definitely wanted some. I’d just discovered this week that I could drink it. I was so excited.

I’d woken up early and was pretty tired, so without thinking, I’d made myself a cup of coffee. It wasn’t until I’d taken a sip that I realized I wasn’t supposed to have anything but blood. I’d freaked out, called Toby, and by the time he’d come over, I was in a full panic. Zay was awake and by my side without me having to wake him.

Fortunately, nothing had happened, and so… I’d taken another sip.

After calling Jed and making sure I wasn’t causing harm to myself, Toby declared it fine. According to the elder vampire, my body was fine with it likely because it was a liquid. My body probably thought it was blood, so I shouldn’t overdo it in case it made me sick. For now, I was allowed one coffee per week. If everything went well, I’d up it to two soon.

“Sure,” Basil said.

“Zay hasn’t eaten yet either. Do you want some cereal or oatmeal? Oh, or yogurt and fruit or something?”

“I ate already, but thanks.”

I shot him a nervous smile and went about making coffee. Zay came back in a moment later, walked over to kiss my temple, then joined his uncle at the kitchen island stool.

“So what’s up?”

Basil let out a long sigh. “We caught the guy who… killed Phia.”

I turned to him, eyes wide. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yes. He’s in custody at my BCA office since we took over the case.”

“Holy crap,” Zay said. “So who is it? What’s his name?”

Basil waved us to the table, but I quickly made us each a mug of coffee and brought them over.

Zay’s uncle nodded his thanks, and as soon as I sat down, he said, “The only name he’s given us is Jack. And unfortunately, he’s really great at covering his tracks. We have no record of him anywhere—no fingerprints, no photos, no… anything. All we know is that he’s a hired assassin who wouldn’t give us any information at all. So we kinda had to take extreme measures. It took a minute, but we had enough evidence that we were able to, uh, obtain special permission…” He sort of trailed off, making a face I didn’t understand.

“Special permission for what?”

“To use vampire mojo on him. Jules did it, and the guy told us the truth. He couldn’t lie under Jules’s compulsion.”

In my head, Zay said, “The BCA uses every advantage they have, so this doesn’t surprise me at all.” Well, it sure as fuck surprised me.

Not the BCA part, but the compulsion part.

Vampires could really compel people like in the movies? Holy crap.

I was a vampire now.

Could I compel people?

Holy crap on a cracker.

Before Zay could ask me if I was okay, I asked his uncle, “Can I do that?”

Basil shrugged. “Sure. But you probably have to be a little older, and I know it only works well if you practice with it a lot.”

“Hm. Interesting.” I kinda got lost in my own little world for a minute, imagining compelling other people to do my bidding—not that I’d actually ever do that because that was actually gross—but Zay was too worried about this assassin guy, so he kept questioning his uncle.